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Ceramic flat irons or chemical straighteners?
When you first thought about using ceramic flat irons to straighten your hair did you also consider using chemical straighteners? We use some form of chemical on our hair every day but what I am talking about here are really scary sounding ones like sodium hydroxide, guanidine hydroxide and ammonium thioglycolate. Now I've never tried the chemical straightener treatment but the use of the word "chemical" is enough to scare me off. So whats involved and why choose ceramic flat irons instead of chemical straighteners (also known as relaxing).
Using ceramic flat irons (with tourmaline)
One of the main advantages of using ceramic
flat irons is that they are quick and easy to use and with the advances
of modern science your hair can be straightened in minutes with great
results. There are loads of models on the market but you should choose
ones which are made with ceramic/tourmaline. Tourmaline is much better
than just ceramic as it gives much greater results than the older style
ceramic only style straighteners. The botton line is these types of irons
are getting cheaper, are easy to use and produce great results.
Chemical straighteneing
Firstly, just like using ceramic flat irons, using chemical
straighteners on your hair is not a difficult process but you should ALWAYS
seek prefessional advice. This way the first time you do it the hair stylist
can advice on the correct strength of chemical for your hair type. They
do whats known as a "Strand Test" which checks your hair for
hair texture, porosity, elasticity and the presence or absence of any
hair damage.
To summarise what strength is used on what hair types I have put together
the following table for reference.
| Hair type | Chemical strength |
| Fine, chemically lightened, or colored | Very mild relaxing formula |
| Normal, medium-textured virgin hair | regular strength |
| Coarse virgin hair | strong or super |
Once the hair stylist detrermines your hair type the whole process of chemical straightening is carried out. The following is an outline of what teh whole process involves.
- shampoos designed specifically for relaxers
- petroleum cream
- chemical hair relaxer formula
- neutralizer
- hair relaxing conditioners
After the hair is treated it will still need to be well looked as lack of care will make the hair very brittle. You will need to do some deep conditioning a few times a week and use a good moisturizing shampoo as your hair will be a lot drier because of the relaxing process.
For me there is no choice here and I sill stick with my ceramic flat irons any day. However, if you do decide to use chemical straighteners then make sure and get it done professionally.
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